Idol Goodness on Running Man

What a coincidence to read the news that T-ARA's Jiyeon's gonna be appearing on RUNNING MAN again- I JUST saw the Running Man episode with her FIRST appearance, and BOY was it AWESOME! The theme was a high school couples date, with the girl guests dressed in traditional seifuku school outfits meeting up with their prospective Running Men at a retro 80’s dance hall, where the pairs would be matched up! Along with Jiyeon were idols SUZY from MISS A, SULLI and LUNA from f(x) and Running Man's very own Jihyo  to complete the Date meetup!

Everyone knows Haha's usual schtick whenever it was announced that a girl idol was coming onto the show was to call out "Suzy! Suzy!" before the guest was revealed, so you knew he'd be trying his best to get paired up with her...but what's  THIS? Rather than the brash and boastful HaHa , we see  a shy and bashful Haroror instead! LOL! Luckily, she picked him anyway!

Sensible Sulli ended up picking Jaesuk, and they really matched well together since Yoohuk was the "thinker" of the Running Men, and good-natured Luna gracefully accepted being placed with KwangSoo  after Jihyo and Gary became their usual "Monday Couple" characters!

Since personalities and similar style played a lot in who got chosen, when Jiyeon commented that she was an athletic girl who was really into sports, it seemed inevitable that she and “Commander” Sparta JongKook would be paired, and when they were, the “Power” couple was born!!! The two were so naturally compatible, and when JongKook sat “tuff-guy” style on the bus, Jaesuk chided him for being a bad influence on Jiyeon as she sat exactly like him, the two bad kids from the neighborhood, LOL!!!

One of the funnier challenges was having to carry your date on your back through a busy shopping district, find a stationary shop for pencils, run back to the meeting place and sharpen the pencils in a limited timeframe!  Seems simple enough, but you not only had to sharpen the three pencils in an allotted 15 seconds, but do it on your partners' HEAD!!!!

If you failed, you had to start all over again, thus everal trips to the pencil shop were required by all! Jongkook had no problem carrying Jiyeon, but poor HaHa and Jaesuk were really pushed to the limit! LOL!

At the final Chase site (an old school, naturally) Gary became the chaser  (after having Jihyo stolen from him in a game twist earlier) and the 4 couples had to hide. As Jongkook and Jiyeon hid successfully in a dark supplies closet from the prowling Gary, Jiyeon marveled at how much FUN the game was to play!

Hilarity ensued when Jaesuk and Sulli thought it would be a good idea to hide in the car, but their self congratulations were premature as Gary made a beeline RIGHT FOR THE CAR they were sitting in! Aigoo, everyone's HEARTS froze (including Jaesuk's VJ who was ordered to hide as well!) and they all slunk down as far down as they could in their seats before clueless Gary moved along! WHEW!!

 Sulli was so cute hiding out there, but out of all the girls, I have to say that the clear winner for me was the absolutley squeezably huggable SUZY- Really, she stole my heart in this one: look  at this scene where she and HaHa are hiding behind a wall, then when she sees Jaesuk and Sulli laughing at them, Suzy smiles the cutest smile you've ever seen in your life *HEART MELTS*

All in all another exciting and FUN race, and I just CAN’T WAIT for Jiyeon’s return appearance! If that episode is even HALF as fun as this one was, it's gonna end up being ANOTHER favorite episode!!!!

Jihyo and the Girls relax after the Race

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Awesome 2NE1 Haul Exhilarates!!!

2NE1's first Two Mini-Albums and first album "To Anyone"

So I just got a wonderful shipment of 2NE1 CDs, and this will come as no surprise to those of you who’ve already got 'em, but I had no idea they were gonna be so frickin BEAUTIFUL!! Though 2NE1 was one of the first K-pop artists I ever liked, it took a while before I saw the light and realized I needed to have the songs of this kick-ass group on hard disc! 

Contents of 2NE1's Second Mini album

The CDs I ordered were 2NE1’s first two mini albums and their first album proper, “To Anyone”, and when I ordered it, I thought for sure that they were going to be in regular jewel cases for some reason. Then when I went to go pick up my package at the Post Office, I peered into the box and thought to myself, "What are those hard-shelled DVD case-things in there?" Pulling it out I almost had a heart attack!!!  Man, the elaborate designs, the hard shell embossed casing, the postcard-stock quality photobooklets and those cool anime postcards!! To quote Jodie Foster in Contact: "So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea."

Secret "Moving In Secret" CD + Bonus Photos

Also in that order was my copy of SECRET's  first album "Moving In Secret" (featuring the absolutely solid song “Love Is MOVE!) which is beautiful as well, a glossy photobook and CD housed in a gatefold Hardcover Book (like KARA's album STEP), I really thought it was only going to be in a CD sized box. Imagine my surprise pulling THAT out of the box! PLUS, I didn't know it was going to come with the glossy photos (though truth be told, I still can't tell who everyone is outside of Sunhwa) Usually when a release come with a photo, it includes only ONE…Man SEVEN photos? Talk about your BONUS external bonuses!!! Can You say Hell Yeah!!!

Brown Eyed Girls "Sixth Sense"

I also got Brown Eyed Girls' "Sixth Sense" album which was cool, but would be more exciting if I didn't realize a day after ordering it that there was a Cd+DVD version available, LOL! But it had hella nice pictures of the girls (especially my babes Narsha) so I can't complain!!!! Now just waiting for my T-ara and SNSD albums to arrive for MORE K-Pop gushing!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Epic T-ara "Day By Day" MV is Epic

For weeks now CCM has been teaasing us with stills, snippets and promo shots of T-ara and their futuristic sci-fi MV for their highly anticipated comeback mini album "Day By Day, and as the images came in of what promised to be a longform video telling the story of warring nomadic tribes in a post-apocalyptic world, the excitement was building so much, I was worried  that the MV could live up to all the hype!

Sisterly Love: Hyomin and Dani

Maybe it was because I kept watching the preview video so much, but I really got to know the melody of the song Day By Day as opening sequence began with a flute playing its haunting refrain, so when I finally got to hear the whole song in its entirety I already felt like I knew the song, and when the song went into chorus incorporating the flute melody with the lines "you can take me day by day", it fit so perfectly with the mood and music, well, it just knocked me out!!

Beware of Devil Woman: Jiyeon struts her stuff

The story of  a young streetwise warrior woman travelling across the wastelands with her blind sister(?) under her wings, and a sultry evil woman attempting to abduct the girl for unknown reasons, this MV was like a mini-opera of the Road Warrior told through an Anime outlet! 

Come Up to The Lab and See What's On the Slab: Hyomin On Ice

Deadly Friend: Enter Eunjung

Showdown with Jiyeon and Hyomin

I didn't realize they were going to also incorporate "Don't Leave" into the MV, so it features TWO songs off the Day By Day mini album into the video (and even a little bit of "Mirage" which I guess will be the next chapter video.), so the album is like having the soundtrack to the 16 minute movie!!!! Right now I am so glad I ordered it, otherwise I would be scrambling to get it , I love it so, so  much!!!!  T-ara is DEFINITELY in my top three K-pop artists, I just love everything they do!!!!

PS: I haven't seen Qri, Boram, Soyoung in this clip, so I guess we'll see them in the next chapters. And to be straight, that was newcomer DANI, not Aureum, right? I spent most of the time watching the previews thinking it was the wrong girl! Gotta get my new girls straight!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

"Ace" Song Jihyo

When I first got inot SNSD, the forums I frequented would always refer to some show called "The Running Man" as  the funniest  guest appearances ever made by Girls Generation and that it was a MUST SEE! Subsequently the first two episodes of Running Man I ever saw were SNSD's guest appearances in #64 and #65, which featured six Running Men:  Jaesuk, Sukjin, Gary, HaHa, Jongkook, and KwangSoo, by their banter I figured out that they were the regular cast, but they kept referring to a mysterious girl regular who was apparently out for health reasons named Jihyo, and though i didn't know it, she would go on to become my favorite Running Man of all time!

The first time I saw Jihyo was in the epic Non-Stop Survival Race in RM episode #93, and it was here I first realized how frickin' COOL she was! Running alongside her fellow teammates to try and track down their quarry, scolding and lecturing her subordinattes, you knew this was a gal not to be trifled with! 

By the time I had seen a few more back episodes, i began to feel a tugging at my heart every time she was onscreen, and by the time of #38's Chinese Restaurant Delivery Race, I was totally in love with her, and began going online and trying to find any and every pinup and picture I could find of this beautiful lady.

Typing "Jihyo-Running Man" into the search engines, I found out a few interesting things- one was that her full name was Jihyo Song, and that she was actually a Movie Actress! WOW- I had NO IDEA! The way she was portrayed in RM, she seemed like such a rocker type chick, and I truly believed she was nothing more than (an admittedly pretty awesome) variety show regular! And here she was, a tried and true respected actress! The OTHER thing I discovered was her sultry performance in "A Frozen Flower", and after watching that, I would never be that same again!

Coincidentally, around that time I began to check out a lot of the older Running Man episodes, back when Jihyo wasn't a regular cast member yet and instead a cherished guest Movie Star...Wow, how differently they treated her back then, LOL! Whereas in later episodes she was just another tuff  chick in the bunch, back then she was fawned upon and treated like the lovely lady she is! But soon enough she was a regular (and with Gary Kang, became part of the show's legendary Monday Couple) and with AfterSchool's Lizzy onboard to take care of the "Cutesy" image, left Jihyo to evolve into the no-nonsense Beauty we've come to know and love!

Man, I just LOVE this Girl, The Affable Miss Mong, Our "Ace" Jihyo Song!!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

SNSD "How Great Is Your Love"

I liked SNSD's wonderful ballad "How Great Is Your Love" from the very first moment I heard it listening to their album "The Boys", and as I got to know the album better and better, I began liking it more and more. By the time I first stated working out a sort of "Top Ten" SNSD list of sorts, "How Great Is Your Love was already firmly entrenched in the Top Five, making its way to a decent number three on the list of my beloved SNSD songs.

Then a funny thing happened- I met up with a friend of mine who was a huge SNSD fan like me, and he gave me some DVDs with a bunch of Live Performances and Clips of the girls, and among them was a  live performance of How Great Is Your Love the girls did on M COUNTDOWN, and to say I liked it would be an understatement- this was one of the best live performances I'd EVER seen from them! This performance was so awesome that I found myself watching it over and OVER again, night after NIGHT, and after weeks of repeated viewings, I was suddenly hit with the realization: 'Holy Cow, This is my favorite SNSD song of all time !" 

Really, the girls singing was sooooo good, and sung with so much passion, I was simply transfixed from the moment the song started! I always knew that  Taeyeon, Tiffany, Seohyun and Jessica were the "hard hitters" of the group vocal wise, but I still wasn't prepared for how uplifting their voices would be- each soaring line blew me away and made me break out in gossebumps! 
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

If the amazing vocals of the girls wasn't enough, they even had the girls dressed up in these wonderfully pretty and feminine pastel colored dresses, complete with ribbons and hairbands in their hair to showcase the girls' perfect girlishness, immediately becoming one of my favorite outfits ever!!!

Just about the only drawback to this fine, fine performance was the fact that (as usual) Yoona couldn't make the show, fortunately her two lines were divided and ably sung by Tiffany and SooYoung, so the song swept along without interruption! (I was to later find a peformance of How Great Is Your Love WITH Yoona in it, sadly THAT version was a truncated, shortened version! No, for the full, incredible performance, this M-COUNTDOWN performance was the ONE!)

Short Version wi Yoona

BTW: Though my SNSD bias since the beginning has been for Jessica, in recent months I've been wavering and have been dividing my love between Jessica and Yuri...MAN, seeing my beloved Sica sing her lines out with such sweet emotion, I fully realize how much I love her and have ALWAYS loved her...she's freakin' AWESOME!!!

My Sica

FWIW: My SNSD Top 40 Song Rankings!

Z's SNSD TOP 40 SONG RANKING!

final update as of  07/2012

How Great Is Your Love
Hoot
Sweet Talking Baby
Sunflower
Chocolate Love 
Echo
La La La
Time Machine 
Top Secret
I’m In Love With The HERO

Goodbye, Hello
Boys & Girls 
Lazy Girl
My Friend Haechi
Ooh La-La!
Ha Ha Ha
Library
Telepathy
Day by Day
You-aholic

Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)
Born To Be A Lady
Girls Generation
Kissing You
Gee
Be Happy
Way To Go!
Beautiful Stranger
Mr. Taxi
Oh!

OMG (Oh My God)
Trick
Complete 
Show! Show! Show! 
Tinkerbell
Beginning
Oscar
Diamond
Perfect for You(Honey)
My Best Friend

Notes:

Looking over at this list, it's clear that the more fun and poppy songs are the ones I love most, the ones that sound like J-pop Pony Canyon artists like CoCo and Ribbon. Maybe that's why there are so many non-album tracks here, as most CM and OST songs are more fun and light rather than the heavy and serious tracks off their albums.

Although my list contains mostly bubblegum pop songs and/or ballads (which the girls do very, very well), it's a fact that this is one very diverse group and there are so many different styles here, from pop, dance, R&B, and even techno! Naturally, this list isn't set in stone as the girls keep adding more treasures to their catalog and my music tastes grow...it'll be fun to check back in a few years and see where we're at!

* And like the other lists before, this is purely for fun, an interesting way to remember “where I was” at this stage of SNSD fandom. And as usual, though it is a list of ranking, in the end, the best I can do is give a sort of "general" placement of the songs in the list. By that I mean that a song ranked at, say, #11 isn't necessarily more loved than a song at #13, but probably more beloved than a song at #18 or so.
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Tale Of Two Emis

Emi Takei Meets Emi Takei in W No Higeki

Out of all the dramas that came out a season back, Emi Takei's thriller "W No Higeki" was the one I was looking forward to the most!

 I really love Emi but her last effort "Asuko March" just didn't really grab me, (ehhhnk, I just don't like those Problem Student/School dramas) but happily, this psychological mystery drama about a proverbial "Good Twin/Evil Twin" scenario looked like something I could really get into!

Emi as Mako, the "Good" Twin...

...and as Satsuki, the "Bad" Twin

Starring Emi in dual roles as both a meek and shy rich girl who longs to be free of her domineering, controlling family and a street-wise tuff chick on the lam for murder this was taking the old cliche of the good twin /bad twin to a new dimension! Emi really breathes life into both characters, and you can alwauys tell which "girl" she's playing just by her body language and facial expressions!

Though it was indeed as good as I hoped it would be, I am concerned about how the show is going to end. You see, while the story itself is interesting, there's every indication that what we're seeing is nothing more than a woman's mystery novel being played out. Yeah, it's confusing. Hope things become clearer as the show progresses...if it wraps up like that, I'm gonna be IRKED!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com